The Faculty of Mathematics and Computer Science from the University of Bucharest (FMI UNIBUC), the Institute of Mathematics of the Romanian Academy (IMAR), the Romanian Mathematical Society (SSMR) and Ovidius University Constanta organize a

Summer school on Codes Theory

27.07-1.08, 2008

Vatra Dornei, Romania

Coding theory is a branch of mathematics and computer science dealing with the error-prone process of transmitting data across noisy channels, via clever means, so that a large number of errors that occur can be corrected. It also deals with the properties of codes, and thus with their fitness for a specific application.
There are two classes of codes.
Source coding (Data compression)
Channel coding (Forward error correction)
The first, source encoding, attempts to compress the data from a source in order to transmit it more efficiently. We see this practice every day on the Internet where the common "Zip" data compression is used to reduce the network load and make files smaller. The second, channel encoding adds extra data bits, commonly called redundancy bits, to make the transmission of data more robust to disturbances present on the transmission channel. The ordinary user may not be aware of many applications using channel coding. A typical music CD uses a powerful Reed-Solomon code to correct for scratches and dust. In this application the transmission channel is the CD itself. Cell phones also use powerful coding techniques to correct for the fading and noise of high frequency radio transmission. Data modems, telephone transmissions, and of course NASA all employ powerful channel coding techniques to get the bits through.

The workshop is intended for those interested in learning the background of codes theory.
The intention of this summer school is to give a broader picture on standard codes theory methods.